Ennahda Leader: Interior ministry forcing youth to join Daesh

Tunisia is forcing its youth to join Daesh as they have no access to moderate religious culture in the country, a senior member of Ennahda said.

Rida Baroni said mosques have been restricted or closed and Friday sermons are being prepared by the interior ministry. This has led to Tunisians turning away from mosques, creating a vacuum, he explained. They search for a new religious source on the internet. “Unfortunately, the existing injustice and oppression generate extremist reactions,” he added.

In an interview for MasrAlarabia.com, the political leader explained that nearly 50 years ago, young people were inclined to radical interpretation and engaged in terrorist organisations as a result of the shallowness of the culture of religious education at a time when scholars did not exist.

“The absence of moderate religious leaders caused the young people to look to violent extremism in response to the humiliation they suffered. They found comfort in Daesh’s radical rhetoric around the journey to paradise and fell prey to the extremist group.”